


Your Father Was An Ocean

by thebesttempinchiswick



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Ben's POV, F/M, M/M, Poetry, poem, season 6 AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-08
Updated: 2014-04-08
Packaged: 2018-01-18 14:59:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1432723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebesttempinchiswick/pseuds/thebesttempinchiswick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Your father was an ocean, torn between two shores. </p><p>A poem from Ben's POV, AU season 6.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Father Was An Ocean

You see them exchanging  
not quite lover's touches, but more like  
accidentals. Notes that are still in the same octave,  
but just out of key.

You are confused. You've seen his eyes look at your mother  
with that light, that reverence. That protection.  
But you've never seen such fear.

Then again, your mother has never appeared in the night,  
blood dripping from cuts and into the dirt.  
Your mother has never come home to him in such a way  
that he nearly leaves himself behind in the  
race to get to her.

She rushes out with a flashlight and a  
first aid kit, pushing you back inside the door  
as she goes.

He keeps her from touching this night man  
With his blood and his hollowness  
You see him bring the man inside  
Curling him into his shoulder in a way that it not so  
intimate to watch as it is to do, more protective  
than anything else.

#

They speak for the longest time in  
hushed voices that you can hear from your bedroom.  
The night man went to sleep in the back  
And your parents are talking about things that  
happened a long time ago, far away from you.

You don't understand, and so it  
does not occur to you that this  
is anything but strange

Years from now, when you are older  
and you think back to tonight,  
you will understand that this was  
everything but strange.

 

You will know that  
your father had known it was  
coming  
for some time  
only  
he underestimated  
the magnitude of it all.

He did not know that  
love has the ability to  
retain power through  
millennia of silence

He thought that he would be rational  
and have time  
and be able to  
help someone he loved  
without falling in love  
and he was wrong.

#

It doesn't come right away.  
It is not a band-aid being ripped off.  
It is not a clean break.

It is a few weeks away,  
and then a few at home,  
then away again  
to parts unknown for  
reasons that can only be traced to  
thin air.

It is your mother finishing bottles of wine by herself  
It is your father making excuses  
about how he is needed somewhere  
else, but he doesn't say where.

Your father is an ocean  
torn between two shores.  
Your mother is the static sand  
slowly crawling  
back from the sea.  
And the only truth is that after  
some time, they both have to choose.

It is you starting high school with only phone calls  
It is learning that forgiveness does not equal  
an excusal.

Your father was torn  
between two shores.  
You don't understand  
but you realize that  
you've never been in love with a night man.

You've never thought something was  
gone forever, only to  
have it reappear in all it's glory at the  
exact moment it would  
tear you away.

Your father was an ocean  
And you are a child.  
You have never drowned under the waves,  
but that doesn't mean you've  
never  
forgotten how to breathe.  



End file.
